EuroNanoForum a ‘major’ opportunity for Irish researchers

The sixth biannual EuroNanoForum – which takes place in Dublin this week – is set to “showcase Ireland as a hotbed of nanotechnology research, innovation and investment”, according to Enterprise Ireland’s Dr Liam Brown.

The largest event of the Irish EU presidency, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, executive director of Ireland’s leading nano-science institute Crann, says the event will be a “major chance for Irish researchers”.

They will seek to attract investment through the European Commission-backed €70 billion Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework which is being launched in January.

“It’s an opportunity for Irish industry and academia to put themselves in the shop window,” adds O’Brien, who notes that over the past decade, the global market for nano-enabled materials has grown from “from $420 million to almost $300 billion”.

Further attention

Dr Brown is national delegate for the commission-sponsored Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies programme.

He says the EuroNanoForum 2013 – which begins tomorrow and sees more than 1,400 delegates from across the continent gathering at the Convention Centre for three days of seminars and talks – is important to attract further attention to the opportunities nano-science presents in terms of “computing, health, energy, the environment and many other areas”.

“A lot of that work in those areas is done here. In Ireland we’re ranked sixth in the world per capita in terms of performance in nanotechnology,” Dr Brown tells The Irish Times.